Sustainable Aviation Fuel Manufacturing in Island Locations (SAF MIL)

The overall goal of the project is to show feasibility of adapting our proprietary process of manufacturing commercial sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) in remote island locations from locally available solid waste, to be able to produce military-specification jet fuel for USAF/DoD use, while maintaining delivered cost at or below the current state-of-the-art for commercial SAF made from solid waste. This Phase I project will identify AF requirements and customers and build on Simonpietri Enterprises LLC’s (SEL) technology to convert solid waste into green hydrogen for commercial hydrotreating of jet fuel in domestic petroleum refineries.  SEL’s manufacturing process, developed in and for Hawaii and to solve local waste challenges and supply SAF locally, can be adapted to apply to other island locations with jet fuel demand, of which there are many in the Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM) theater of operations.   In this project, SEL will work with Air Force end users and acquisition program offices to define requirements and priority locations for remote/island SAF supply.  SEL will screen the technical and environmental feasibility of using feedstocks from locally available solid waste streams in those locations to make military specification-compliant aviation turbine fuel (ie JP-8 and Jet A-1).     Waste stream feedstocks SEL will evaluate include municipal solid waste, logistics dunnage, construction and demolition (C&D) debris, battle-damaged areas, and natural disaster debris.  SEL will also apply its innovations to reduce the cost of the SAF, as well as refine proprietary techniques to safely sequester contaminants and environmental pollutants common in these waste streams and meet U.S. regulations for non-hazardous solid waste disposal.  Engineering screening studies performed in this Phase I project will evaluate feedstock-conversion technology-location fit and identify the most cost effective and risk-mitigated process for use in island locations. In Phase II and beyond SEL will work with PACAF and INDOPACOM to evaluate use cases in priority locations in the INDOPACOM AOR and develop a specific engineering design and construction plan for a SAF manufacturing facility at one of those locations.  This plan will include thorough cost analysis and process engineering modeling as well as regulatory and certification plans.  The end goal is to produce qualifying fuel which can be commercially marketed to Air Force customers/stakeholders such as Air Force Petroleum Agency and DLA Energy as well as airlines and other commercial customers.